Hesson’s timely dose of common sense
Mike Hesson might as well have been wearing a hat that said ‘purveyor of common sense’.
Back in Auckland to prepare for tomorrow’s Twenty20 tri-series final against Australia at Eden Park, the Black Caps coach kept any divergent opinions to himself.
He wasn’t going to join England coach Trevor Bayliss, who has reiterated his stance that international T20 should be a rarity.
Nor was he going to join the vocal chorus who have got themselves fired up about Eden Park’s small boundaries.
First T20, where Bayliss is concerned that too much of it will lead to blowout.
Hesson conceded there was a workload issue, but said there was also a ‘‘revenue-generation issue’’ that had to be considered.
‘‘In some countries that’s not as big a deal, but for New Zealand Cricket, to get 35,000 at Eden Park or whatever it was the other day, that’s huge for us, and huge for the game, and huge for the promotion of the game.
‘‘We certainly get great support for T20 internationals over here.’’
Bearing that in mind, it was worth considering once again whether international T20 matches are meaningful. It’s a question the cricketing world is yet to produce a definitive answer to, but for Hesson, it’s clear.
‘‘Too right they are,’’ was his response when asked. ‘‘Every international you play is incredibly meaningful. You’ve got guys who only play T20 and that’s their chance to play international cricket, so absolutely’’.
As for Eden Park, where a recordequalling 32 sixes were hit on Friday, as Australia pulled off a record chase of 244 against the Black Caps?
Hesson has no issues with it as a cricket venue
‘‘I think you’ve just got to look at history haven’t you, and how many great games of cricket we’ve had at Eden Park.
‘‘Not all of them have been [chasing] 244 in a T20. We’ve had that many different games here – a couple of Chappell-Hadlee games in recent times, the World Cup [pool game, where the Black Caps only just got home chasing 152 in a one-day international.
‘‘Every game’s different. It’s a great cricket venue.’’
The question now is what kind of game it will produce tomorrow, where the excellent batting pitch from Friday is set to be used again.
Having won four from four so far in the tri-series, Australia will be favourites, and Hesson was happy to say so, but at the same time, it’s T20, so the Black Caps have given themselves a chance simply by making the final.
To take that chance, they will have to bowl a great deal better than they did on Friday, and they know it.
‘‘Sometimes when you’re under pressure like that, you do end up chasing the game,’’ Hesson said. ‘‘A big part of T20 cricket is trying to be ahead of it, and that’s easier said than done when you’ve got such good ball strikers on a good surface.
‘‘We’re going to come up with a couple of different things and see how that works.’’
England tied the Black Caps down twice on Sunday, where they won the match in Hamilton, but missed out on a place in the decider on net run rate – first with spin, then with accurate fulllength bowling at the death.
‘‘I don’t think you can allow the guy to keep hitting the same length and that’s something we’ve talked about,’’ Hesson said.
‘‘They hit, I think, nine out of 11 yorkers and they hit them very well, and perhaps when you play at different levels they might miss a little more often, but these guys are good and we’ve got to do better.’’